Gore Verbinski turned himself into a blockbuster director when he helmed all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and made them into worldwide successes on a quite ridiculous scale. But now he's announced that he won't be returning for the fourth instalment, due to shoot next year, instead focusing on video game adaptation Bioshock.
We like to think that this is because Verbinski realised he couldn't face getting his head around another mega-complicated Pirates plot, instead heading for a nice sensible story like that of Bioshock. Y'know, set in an alternate 1960 where a plane crash survivor called Jack finds himself in an underwater city called Rapture and has to survive encounters with the mutated inhabitants and drones that now populate it, thanks to a mysterious substance called ADAM that is extracted from sea slugs that gives them psychic powers and mutant physical abilities. Still, at least there are no more ghost pirates, eh?
Verbinski's also working on animated film Rango, which reunites him with Pirates star Johnny Depp in a voice role, and developing film versions of Clue (aka Cluedo) and a story about fantasy role playing games and the real-life effects of addiction to them.
As for the news that he's off Pirates IV, we're a little torn. On one hand, it's a shame that the gang won't be back together for the third sequel; on the other, maybe fresh blood will help the franchise. And it's worth noting that while no one has ever made a good film from a video game, no one had ever made a good film from a theme-park ride before the first Pirates, so maybe Verbinski is the right person for Bioshock.